I am skeptical of it's effects as any conservative minded person would be, but I am also open-minded. It's inevitable that automation in the trucking, retail and food service industries will be devastating to a large segment of society and this is one attempt to get ahead of that. But UBI isn't the point of my original post.
Andrew Yang is a serious candidate, he has 70 policy proposals on his website and after listening to both podcasts and watching several interviews a few comments:
1. He has a bit of work to do on his delivery and persona. On the Sam Harris podcast in particular he has this habit of nervous laughter not unlike Hillary. In several of the interviews he comes off a bit elitist and condescending.
2. He is an actual "stable genius", unlike Trump. He's an actual self-made man, unlike Trump. He is smart and his positions are well-researched. With some fine tuning, I expect him to kill it at the debates.
3. He's targeting the right demographic to beat Trump.